Travel Diary - Going West Again! (Part 3)

We opened our slider door the next morning, and we couldn’t believe what we saw. It looked like miles and miles of open space. We were definitely parked in a dry lake bed! We love camping mostly while surrounded by mountains and rock formations, but something about all that open space was quite calming as well. 

There’s plenty of open space at the dry lake bed on BLM land north of Joshua Tree.

     We ate a quick early-morning breakfast, then drove to Joshua Tree National Park. We took the main drive through the park. We stopped at Skull Rock and snapped some pics before hopping back into the van. Unfortunately, it was more crowded that we had hoped. In fact, all of the popular stops were quite crowded, even in the early morning. So, we kept moving until we saw a side road. We headed down the gravel road and found some peace and quiet. We parked the Vanagon, took a few small hikes & monkeyed around on some boulders. Joshua Tree NP is a pretty unique place. We don’t have the desert-type of plant life and random piles of boulders lying around in Kentucky. 

Skull Rock in Joshua Tree National Park.

Brakayla nestled amongst the Joshua Trees.

     Once we had our fill of the park, we headed toward our next destination, Goldstrike Hot Springs in Nevada. To get there, we drove along small roads instead of the Interstate Highway. We always try to do this to make our drives in between stops more interesting. Plus, we get to see more of the real USA instead of exit after exit of fast food joints. 

     We enjoyed the vibe of the dry lake bed near Joshua Tree so much, we camped at another one that night in Boulder City, Nevada. We drove all the way to the rear of the lake bed next to a solar energy farm and had what seemed like acres of space to ourselves. There was so much space, we were able to grab another shower!

We loooove dry lake bed camping!

How about the colors of that killer sunset?!

     After a very relaxing evening, we rose early to pack a lunch and get started on the hike to the hot springs. The Goldstrike Hot Springs are near the Colorado River on the Nevada border, not far from the Hoover Dam. This was a really neat hike. The trailhead is located not far from the highway, below some highway overpasses. Along the way down the trail, there are remnants of a few wrecked cars that have driven off the road in the past. Another neat aspect of the trail is the presence of strategically-placed ropes to help hikers scale up/down the piles of rock. A few of these obstacles were challenging, but not too much. This made the hike a lot of fun!

     The further we hiked, the more water we began to see. The puddles of spring water kept getting larger…we were getting close. We passed a number of pools that were large enough for us, but we had our eyes on the BIG pool we had seen in pictures. Finally, we came down around a bend on the trail, and there it was. The large pool has been sand-bagged on one end to hold the water. We had it all to ourselves! We stripped down to our swimsuits and jumped in.

     After riding many miles in the van and hiking down to the springs, that hot water felt amazing! We spent close to an hour relaxing in the pool before more hikers began to come through. We got out, dried ourselves off and hiked a bit further down the trail until we reached the Colorado River. There are a few really nice spots to picnic, so we decided to have lunch on a big rock at the bottom of the gorge. 

The view from our picnic at the bottom of the trail on the Colorado River.

     With our bellies full, we hiked back up to the van. Coming back up was a bit more challenging since you have to use the ropes pull your weight up and over the boulders. 

     Next stop: Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. We had seen a lot of photos of the park, but had little info about it. We only allotted a couple hours to explore there. If we had known beforehand how gorgeous the park is, we would have set aside a full day or two. 

Hiking along the Fire Wave Trail.

     We drove Mouses Tank Road through the park, and we were in awe to entire time. How could all these amazing red and orange hues be in the middle of the browns and grays of the Nevada desert?! How is this remarkable place not a NATIONAL park?! We stopped at the Fire Wave Trail and hiked back to see the amazing way the wind has cut this otherworldly landscape. The white, red, and orange lines in the rock are something to behold. We’d really like to spend more time there in the future and hike into the heart of the park. It’s an extraordinary place. 

The sun going down on the Fire Wave at Valley of Fire State Park.

Becky snapping some shots off.

     We left the state park and trekked back east into Utah. We decided after soaking in hot springs and sweating our way through a couple hikes we should shower off. We decided to find a campground with amenities to regroup, sort things out in the van, and take a proper shower. We found a campground in Hurricane, Utah and did just that. 

     I’ll wrap up the blog about our second trip to The West in 2020 in a couple weeks. I’ll detail our trip to Lone Rock Beach and driving to Alstrom Point in the Glen Canyon area.

-Andrew